A woman and her daughter were injured when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blew off around 3:30 pm on Tuesday, January 19, 2021, at a usually teeming business hub in the city, concurrent reports have said.

It is not known if the injuries suffered by the duo are life-threatening. Those familiar with the story, however, say the victims were “seriously injured” and are in hospital. A township taxi driver is said to have driven them to a local hospital shortly after the explosion.

Eyewitnesses say they heard a loud sound that forced them to take to their heels, fearing the unknown.

Vendors of fast food, as well as bar owners in the area, have reported losses to the explosion. Other shops and businesses in the vicinity of the explosion were also affected.

Defense and Security Forces who rushed to the area are trying to determine the cause of the explosion.

"The explosion was well calculated and planted. It was caused by an improvised explosive device because we could identify a telephone, nails, and other iron objects which indicate that it was an intentional act," a security officer is quoted as saying.

At the scene of the incident are fragments of a metal case used to sell pork fries in which the explosive materials are thought to have been hidden.

On January 7, security forces diffused an explosive device in Kumba. The discovery came a day after an improvised explosive device reportedly implanted by separatist fighters in Momo, North West region detonated, killing five persons, including four soldiers and a local civil servant.

Cameroon’s state forces have been battling to dislodge armed separatists who pitched their tents in the North West and South West Regions since Anglophone protests transformed into an armed conflict in 2017.

Corporate demands by Common Law Lawyers and Anglophone Teachers led to protests in November 2016. The street demonstrations later morphed into ongoing running gun battles between state forces and armed separatist fighters in the predominantly English-speaking regions, leading to untold destruction of human lives, their habitats, and livelihoods.

Tit-for-tat killings, kidnappings, arsons, maiming, and outright terror have become part of daily lives in some parts of the English-speaking regions.

While in Bamenda on Monday, January 18, 2021, territorial administration minister Atanga Nji Paul said President Paul Biya has “won” the war waged on separatists although pockets of resistance still exist. He advised those still carrying arms against the state to surrender or face the music.